Christopher Nolan Movies: Ranking The Rug-Pull Moments

4. The Warehouse (The Dark Knight)

Often is the case that when a franchise recasts a role, the change feels clunky and undermines the consequent role of the character. However, the characteristic growth of Rachel Dawes between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - from tepid, one-dimensional love interest to gutsier, more well-rounded individual - was given a physical representation by swapping in Maggie Gyllenhaal for Katie Holmes. In The Dark Knight, Gyllenhaal lent maturity and resoluteness to a character demanding far more from an actress than was required in the first film, and whilst there is no knowing whether Nolan had his hand forced into the recast or whether it was an informed and agreed-upon decision, it appears to have worked out well for the trilogy's legacy. So, blowing her up halfway through the mid-instalment of his trilogy was a bold move from Nolan, especially as she was the only female character given even a slither of screen-time between both films. It was unquestionably the most shocking moment in a film that, whilst tense, played out without much of a twist in the foreseeable plot. If one were to consider Rachel's death within the context of The Dark Knight as a single film, the shock factor works extremely well. However, weighing up the arcs of the characters across the trilogy, it can't be helped feeling that a character finally given the chance to develop into a rounded, intriguing personality, was whimsically killed off as a mere plot convenience.